Australian mosquito trial takes a bite out of dengue

Sydney: More than 80% of a dengue fever-spreading mosquito has been wiped out in an Australian town during a landmark trial scientists said offered hope for combating the dangerous pest globally.

Researchers from Australia’s national science body CSIRO bred millions of non-biting male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in laboratory conditions at James Cook University (JCU) in a project funded by Google parent company Alphabet.

The insects were infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, which renders them sterile.

They were then released into the wild at trial sites around the Queensland town of Innisfail where over three months they mated with females who laid eggs that did not hatch, causing the population to plummet.

It is responsible for infecting millions of people around the world each year and JCU’s Kyran Staunton said the successful trial was a major step forward.

“We learnt a lot from collaborating on this first tropical trial and we’re excited to see how this approach might be applied in other regions where Aedes aegypti poses a threat to life and health,” Staunton said.

The so-called sterile insect technique has been used before but the challenge in making it work for mosquitoes was being able to rear enough of them, identify males, remove biting females, and then release them in large enough numbers to suppress a population.